The Other Way
by reversediction
Summary: Yayoi discovers there are other ways to tune a regalia. Agito x Yayoi.


**A/N**: Hey guys! I'm a huge AG fan and I've become somewhat attached to Agito x Yayoi so... here is one of my attempts at writing something about them. I'm a little rusty on Air Gear lore so if there is anything in here that doesn't coincide with how things work in the manga, please don't hesitate to tell me! I took a lot of literary liberties with my interpretations on tuning, but accuracy is also important to me.

**Disclaimer**: Air Gear belongs to Oh!Great. I am but a lowly third-party transcriber to his genius.

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The Other Way  
_An Air Gear fanfic_

1.

_Ugh, he is so damn persistent!_ she thought, slamming her fist onto the smooth surface her desk, startling the people who sat around her. She allowed herself that one act of rage in order to release the tempest that was building up inside of her.

To her immediate right, a happy Emily tore herself away from what sounded like a pleasant talk with Kazu in order to examine her friend's face. She both looked and sounded worried.

"Nakayama…?"

She could see Kazu from the edge of her peripheral vision and he looked worried too, but she only looked at the person who had a hand on top of her desk, covering the paper she had been reading. "I already told you," she said through gritted teeth, "I can't make it because that's the day my parents are going out of town. I have to stay home and watch the house for them."

"And I'm telling you I don't care," said Wanijima Agito, who looked unimpressed by her display. "You're my tuner – my newbie, greenhorn, technologically-challenged tuner who has never touched an AT more than once in her life – and I need to make sure you have more than just talent. I don't give a damn about what you have to do on Saturday, you're going to join me at training if it _kills_ you."

"Excuse me," she said in a tone that was calm and chilly, " but I was under the impression that I agreed to be a tuner, not a lackey_._"

His short bark of laughter deepened the crease in her brow. "You have a lot to learn. Saturday, Nakayama."

When he left, she seethed and sighed and wondered why she ever agreed to this.

2.

"So, are you going?"

She waited for the sound of a can hitting the bottom of the vendo machine before stooping to get her drink. "No."

"_What_? Didn't you hear him! He said he'd kill you if you didn't!"

"It was an empty threat, Emily. He knows he needs me." She popped it open and took a sip. The taste of iced coffee going down her throat soothed her nerves and calmed her down better than anything she knew. She took a longer drink and leaned against the bulk of the vendo as Emily stepped across her to get herself an orange soda. "I never thought he'd be so rude to me though… considering I'm a girl."

Emily rolled her eyes and pushed a button. "He's rude to _everybody_, Nakayama."

Sigh. "Guess I can forget about ever expecting special treatment, huh?"

Rumblerumblerumble. Thock!

Emily retrieved her orange soda and slung an arm around her friend's shoulders.

"You poor girl. If you'd only stopped liking him then this whole ordeal might be a little easier on you."

She laughed a little, draped her own arm around Emily's waist, and took a swig of her iced coffee. "If he's like this every time we talk, then you won't have to worry. I'll probably be hating him before the week's up."

3.

He was in her house.

He was in her bloody house.

Yayoi wondered if it was possible to drown herself in the koi pond at the back of the property as she watched him roll over to her in his deadly-looking treks, glaring a glare that could kill.

"I told you," she said stiffly, raising her chin to preserve her dignity, "I had to stay home today."

"And I told you: _I don't care."_

He very clearly looked like he intended to drag her off to whatever secluded wasteland he liked to practice in, so she decided to take the initiative.

"Look, Agito, you just want to teach me about tuning, right?" She withheld the sigh building up in her chest and forced a smile. "I didn't want it to come to this but… would you like to do that here?"

He stared at her hard.

"Come on, please?" she wheedled, "My grandmother's here. That's why I can't leave, I have to take care of her."

"…"

She released the sigh, giving up, and went inside. When she returned, he was still outside, arms folded resolutely, lips trembling and no doubt ready to unleash a wave of colorful profanities.

He caught the can she tossed at him with nary a stumble, his aura of bloody murder momentarily switching to wary curiousity.

"You like those, right?" she said, indicating the coffee. "I like them too, so we have more of those inside. Come on in."

Five minutes later, he was inside, ATs strung across his shoulders, and canned coffee pressed against his lips.

4.

"Got it?" Agito asked idly, after an hour of droning.

She ignored him, fingers racing across the page to commit what she remembered into a readable form. Slave-driver though he was, Agito made a pretty decent teacher.

She dotted the last of her sentences and announced, "Done."

"So, continuing –"

Suddenly, a faint voice called from the inner hall: "Yayoi-chan?"

"Ah, shoot." She stood up and rushed out to her grandmother's side, and when she came back she was carrying a tray of used utensils. "I can wash as you talk, just increase the volume a little," she said to him, dumping the plates into the sink.

He was so quiet for a moment there that she thought he was pissed.

And then he appeared by her right side, grabbing a towel. "I'll dry." In response to her stare, he replied, irritated, "We'll finish faster this way. I can talk while I dry. And anyway," he flipped open the faucet forcibly, hinting at her to _get started already_, "I don't teach people who have their backs to me."

5.

"We're about done with the lecture part."

"What, really? I kind of expected more."

"There is more," he said, flopping backwards onto the floor. "It's just that all this talking is getting to be so damn boring."

"Isn't there a practical part to this?"

"That's why I asked you to come to training today." He glared at her – still irritated by the change in venue, obviously – from the floor.

6.

What does it mean to be a tuner?

She'd asked all she could from Sumaragi but she couldn't quite picture it in her mind.

You had to be close to the person you'd be tuning, though. That's what Sumaragi stressed the most. It would be less awkward to tune the Regalias if the Kings and their Tuners got along at a certain level.

7.

"What do you think of me, Agito?"

She was lying on the floor now, too, curled up on her side so she could look at him from where he was splayed on the wooden boards.

"You look like you're cooperative but you're actually a pain in the ass to work with," he said flatly, lying eagle spread and staring up at the lights. "You can be useful too, I suppose."

Sigh. "So you have no problems with me being your tuner?"

"If I had problems with you, I wouldn't be here. And I probably wouldn't have asked you to take the job in the first place." His tone changed slightly, from matter-of-fact to forced-casual inquiring. "Is it me having the problems or you?"

_Ah, so he wasn't that oblivious after all. When did he notice she treated him differently from the other guys? When did he notice it was affecting her concentration?_

"It's probably me," she admitted, embarrassed. But if talking about it was what it took to prove to him that she was serious about this job, well, she'd take it, even if it was at the expense of her dignity. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, and said, "But I'm working on it. Don't worry about it getting in the way in the future."

There were sounds from his direction that indicated he was getting up, but she didn't feel like following suit. To her surprise, a second later, his face appeared over hers, staring down at her with this look of arrogance… and purpose.

"We'll see about that," he said cryptically.

Before she could ask what he meant, he bent down and his face was closer than ever.

"A-a-agito, what are you doing?" she stammered, staring at him incredulously.

"I'm testing you." He stared at her through that one, yellow eye. It infuriated her to some degree that it only took a few seconds for her face to flame up in response to the proximity (or lack thereof).

Even though his face was diagonal to hers – an awkward position to look at a person, to be sure – she somehow was able to see his face, all of it, and how he had poised himself in a position that was… easy to kiss.

_Crap, _she thought, resisting the urge to squirm. If she was supposed to ignore that possibility, she was going to have a hard time doing it. Was this what he meant by 'testing' her?

She closed her eyes, wishing it would be over _soon_…and felt warmth across her lips.

8.

Why Why Why Why

Her mind wanted answers but it couldn't come up with any possibilities.

He was being very gentle with her mouth, like he expected her to kiss back, so she gave in a little because, really, her mind couldn't think of anything else to do.

Then he lifted his head, and locked gazes with her.

"Were you listening?" he said simply, almost tersely, and suddenly things made a little more sense.

He read the immediate jolt of understanding in her eyes, it seemed, because he leaned in again and repeated the process. This time, her mind traveled away from the warmth, towards what was inside, and again, like last time, she 'saw' a mass of gears and belts and things moving in rhythm with one another. 'Heard' them all working together in a steady, beating harmony. Biorhythm.

Everything was a lot sharper to her this time, and it was probably because of the kiss. The connection between them.

He broke it off suddenly, and she was never more aware of it. At that moment it felt like all the sounds in her head were suddenly pulled out of her, leaving her mind startlingly silent.

"You seem to be working fine," she said, slightly breathless and wide-eyed, recovering from the loss of sound. She quickly went through what she'd learned – she couldn't understand all of it, of course, and wouldn't until she had some more formal training, but she knew enough to deduce a few things on her own. "I think you've been overworking your legs again, though."

He sat up first, leaning on the kotatsu, and picked up an unopened can of coffee when she joined him. His actions were casual and laid-back, totally detached. "You got the lesson?" he said gruffly, ignoring her last statement.

"Huh? Uh, yeah." She blushed a little, but fought that down. "You-you could have warned me first," she said, giving him a reproachful look. Then, carefully avoiding eye contact: "We're not going to have to do that every time I tune you, do we?"

"What if we did?"

He was serious, observing her. Testing her. Again.

She sighed. " _'Get used to it, Nakayama'._ Got it." She watched him take a sip of the coffee, and was startled when he offered it to her.

"This is practice," he stated.

"Oh. Indirect kiss, huh? I suppose it doesn't really matter since we'll have to get that close."

"We won't always," he said, shrugging nonchalantly. "But it's useful if you need to do a quick tune."

9.

The only problem she'd be having with the entire thing was detaching herself – her feelings – from the situation.

10.

"You know, I think I'd rather watch you train than do things like this."

Laughter – it's been a while. "Try not to get stuck house-sitting then."

11.

"Okay, one more for the road."

"What?"

She took one last swig of the coffee, slamming it down onto the table with a force that echoed her resolve, then pushed her hair behind her and moved closer to him.

"I want to prove to myself that I can do this."

His smirk was genuine and she found she could like it on certain occasions. "Shouldn't you be proving that to me?"

She by passed on commenting, leaned in, and kissed him, hearing his sounds flooding into her head.

The small part of her that was enjoying the experience – rather than being pushed away – was tucked in a safe corner at the back of her mind.

12.

This was a lot less awkward than the more conventional methods of tuning, that was for certain.

**end**

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Conventional methods of tuning, i.e. stripping down to nothing.

Also, I forgot where I got the idea that Agito likes coffee. I think it was in the manga. Hm.

I read and re-read this and I don't know how to fix it anymore so... if anything sounds off in any way, please... OTL

Concrit will be received with a warm welcome and cookies. :D


End file.
